Community drowning in sewage and despair

DIAMOND Park and Greenpoint in Kimberley are informal settlements - once places where children played freely in the streets and neighbours greeted each other with pride in their modest shacks and homes. Today, Diamond Park has become a shadow of itself, consumed not by crime or internal decay but by a river of sewage that winds through its streets and yards, unchecked and unresolved. 

What were once roads are now thick, muddy corridors overgrown with lush grass fed by human waste. The roads are impassable, the air choked with the stench of faeces, and the dignity of residents trampled into the filth beneath their feet.

While South Africans celebrated Freedom Day on Monday, the residents of Diamond Park found little reason to celebrate. Freedom? Here, it’s a bitter joke. Families live surrounded by disease, their calls for help ignored for so long that hope has become a faint memory. Health is deteriorating, children are falling ill, and every fresh spillage strips away what little dignity remains.

When the DFA visited the area earlier this week, the situation was nothing short of shocking. The ground squelched underfoot with every step, as putrid water soaked into shoes. Swarms of mosquitoes hovered over stagnant puddles of sewage. The living conditions were beyond deplorable - even pigsties don’t smell this bad.

Residents are exhausted and angry.

Natasha Oliphant, a long-time resident, described how leaking water meters make the crisis worse, allowing clean water to mix with sewage and form more stagnant pools. 

“We need the municipality to come and fix the leaks - not just dig holes and leave them open, but actually close them properly again,” she said. 

It’s a simple request - yet one that remains unmet.

Navigating Diamond Park now feels like a post-apocalyptic nightmare. 

Parents watch helplessly as their children walk through sewage to get to school. “Our children can’t play in the streets anymore. It stinks, man, and they get sick from this,” one resident shouted from the roadside.

Oliphant recounted two heartbreaking incidents where pregnant women had to wade through sewage to reach ambulances because emergency vehicles couldn’t access the flooded streets. “This is a disgrace,” she said bitterly. “Is this what we are worth?”

Another resident said it plainly: they no longer believe the problem will ever be fixed. Their suggestion is heartbreakingly simple - dig proper drainage canals along the roads to at least channel the sewage water away from homes. No high-tech solutions, no expensive infrastructure - just a basic intervention to keep families from drowning in their own waste.

Jafnolia Oliphant shared her ongoing battle to keep her baby healthy. “The child’s chest is very bad. Since birth, this is all this child has seen and smelt. I’m back and forth to the hospital because of this,” she said, her voice weary with frustration.

Walking through the sewage-soaked mud, the DFA could not ignore the state of residents’ shoes and clothing - caked in filth, a daily badge of the squalor they are forced to endure.

Pieter Mokoene, 58, looked utterly defeated. “I’ve lived here for more than 20 years. My wife has tuberculosis. The sewage water is inside my shack. My furniture is ruined. Everything is wet.” Asked where they now sleep, he simply said, “We stay in the shack. Where else must we go?”

Imagine that - sleeping on a wet floor, inhaling sewage fumes, and watching your family’s health crumble. And nobody comes to help.

“My children have to walk through this sewage every day to get to school,” Mokoene added. “Their shoes are ruined - but their dignity is even more damaged.”

Frustration is boiling over. Elton Oliphant said the community would take to the streets if no action is taken within the next seven days. “What else can we do if nobody is listening to us?” he asked, his voice raw with anger.

Pastor Goodwin Wet, another resident, said the community has been strung along for years with empty promises. “We’re tired. We can write a book about all the promises that were made. Enough is enough.”

Residents have clear and reasonable demands: unblock the drains immediately, properly fix the leaking pipes, and once the area is dry, scrape the roads clean so people can walk and drive again.

In response to these cries for help, Thabo Mothibi, manager at the Communications Unit at Sol Plaatje Municipality, stated that the Department of Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (Coghsta), along with Sol Plaatje Municipality, are "bolstering efforts" to deal with the sewage crisis.

He said MEC Bentley Vass and executive mayor Martha Bartlett visited Diamond Park twice in April and promised critical interventions. Two VacJet trucks have been deployed, and CCTV cameras are being used to identify problem areas.

“We are appealing to the residents to be patient,” Mothibi told the DFA, adding that work is unfolding “flat out” to restore proper living conditions.

But how patient must residents be after living with this for years?

In Diamond Park, patience ran out a long time ago. Promises don’t dry up sewage. Camera inspections don’t scrape filth from children’s shoes. Emergency deployments may sound impressive on paper - but for residents, they mean nothing until the streets are dry, homes are safe, and children can breathe clean air.

Mothibi informed the DFA  that on Tuesday, trucks were working in the area and services would continue throughout the week.

“We are working hard towards restoring the dignity of Diamond Park. We are currently busy with the following,” he said:

• Extricating foreign objects such as blankets, dead dogs and bricks from manholes and the sewer network. Clearing manholes.
• In areas where the VacJet truck can not blast – collapsed pipeline – maintenance teams will do excavations.
• We are using CCTV cameras to inspect and diagnose the structural integrity of the sewerage pipeline.
• Looking at the designs of sewerage networks as part of a diagnosis for a permanent solution.

Mothibi said that the municipality team will camp in the Diamond Park area for a full month.

The residents of Diamond Park deserve better. They deserve to live like human beings - not in conditions that would make even livestock sick.

If real action isn’t taken, perhaps the area should be officially renamed “Sewage Park” - because right now, there is very little left of the diamond that once shone there.